"Back in January 2013, two years before he was a candidate for president, Trump made it clear what he would do if he ever occupied the White House. 'Let's get out of Afghanistan,' he tweeted.

"Three days later, Trump was even more outspoken, explicitly endorsing Barack Obama's Afghanistan strategy — which amounted to a troops surge, followed by a troop drawdown. 'I agree with Pres. Obama on Afghanistan,' he wrote. 'We should have a speedy withdrawal. Why should we keep wasting our money – rebuild the U.S.!"'

That sentiment has dramatically changed, according to Perry, influenced by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

"In fact, though he would almost certainly deny it, what Trump has proposed is a reprise of what Barack Obama did in January of 2009," he writes.

President Donald Trump's military advisers have talked him into a "losing strategy" by pushing an increase of American troops in Afghanistan, foreign policy analyst Mark Perry writes in an opinion piece published by The American Conservative.